Chicago Semester

CS Art Instructor Travels Southeast Asia

Posted by Melissa Marinaro in Staff Stories | Sep 16, 2011

                At the end of summer, I took a trip to Southeast Asia to visit my cousin and celebrate the completion of my master’s thesis.  I had the pleasure to explore three destinations:  Hong Kong; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Whenever I go on vacation, I like to do three things:  take photographs, look at art and cultural sites, and eat.  I spent five nights doing so in Hong Kong.  It was very hot and humid with spells of rain.  I stayed at a hostel, which was a very positive experience.  The other travelers were friendly and quick to offer advice and travel recommendations.  Hong Kong was easy to navigate as an English speaker because signs are in Chinese and English and a majority of people spoke English.  Taxis were cheap and the subway system was not difficult to figure out, especially after years of riding the CTA.  The Cantonese people, ex-patriots, and other tourists I met on the street were nice and willing to point me in the right direction or help me order from a menu.  You could see some of the remnants of the country’s British colonial past in the trolley system, names of streets, and food fusions.  I spent a day hiking at Victoria Peak, the highest point of Hong Kong Island, and wandered around a couple neighborhoods, photographing anything that caught my eye.  I visited the Man Mo Temple and saw an exhibition of work from the Young British Artists movement at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.  I took advantage of the city’s public parks, which were great places to photograph daily life, and did a lot of people watching.  I met up with a few friends-of-friends and went out with other travelers I met from the hostel; it was a nice way to see the city’s nightlife while traveling alone.  Hong Kong was an urban experience with bright lights, modern skyscrapers, and large masses in transit, as well as twenty-four hour access to food, shopping, and entertainment.  It is an international port that is home to a spectacular skyline and people from many different cultures, not unlike Chicago. 

Victoria Bay from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong & Waffle Cupcake Stand, Hong Kong

                My next destination was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, also a former British colony, to meet up with my cousin, Kate, who was living there on a work assignment.  Kuala Lumpur had a very different feel from Hong Kong.  Malaysia is a Muslim country and its population is divided between three ethnic groups, the Malays, the Chinese, and the Indians.  Around the city, you could see the mingling of the three cultures, especially in the food.  In fact, Malaysia won my stomach over; everything I ate was so delicious!  Malaysian cuisine, like Chinese, is heavy on rice and noodles, but their meats dishes are curried and stewed, similar to Indian preparations of meat, and can be quite spicy.  Besides food from the three ethnic groups, there were Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese restaurants, as well as American fast food branches, like McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, and A&W.  Kuala Lumpur is a modern city with a tropical backdrop; the vegetation was bright, exotic fruits were sold on the street, and an occasional monkey or snake would hang out among the crowds.  As the city is relatively young and not a sight for cultural activities, there was not much else to do besides shop (there are 66 malls in the city!) and eat.  Since I was there during Ramadan and Hari Raya, I had a chance to do plenty of both.  Stores and restaurants had special promotions for the holiday, much like sales during the Christmas season, and there were a number of Middle Eastern tourists taking advantage of the tax-free goods and the Halal foods, which are prepared according Muslim law.  Overall, I was excited by the diversity of Malaysia.

              The Petronas Towers from my Cousin’s Window & Girl and her Food Stand, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

                Kate was able to get a few days off work because of the holiday, so we traveled together to Siem Reap, Cambodia, a rural area in the northwest side of the country, not too far from the Thai border.  Unlike Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, which were inundated with technology and designer goods, Cambodia was under developed and many of the people lived in extreme poverty.  In the 1960 and 70s, a dictator name Pol Pot controlled the country’s main political party and officiated policy that led towards the death of 1.7-2.5 million Cambodians from 1975-79.  It was clear that the country was still healing from this painful time in their history.  The townspeople were mostly farmers, fishermen, and merchants and it seemed that tourism had allowed the region to build.  Markets and restaurants charged in US dollars because the Cambodian riel is worth so little.  Food and goods were inexpensive; an average dinner was $3.50, cotton clothing cost $5-15, and transportation was $5-10.  Often school-aged children would be working the booths or food stands.  It was alarming at first to see so many small children left unattended and responsible to run a business.  We had a tuk-tuk driver named Mr. John who would drive us around each day, pointing out interesting sites, stores, and monuments.  We took a boat ride to see the floating villages on the Tonle Sap Lake and spent a day visiting temples from the 12^th and 13^th centuries at the Angkor Wat Complex.  It was the rainy season and it would storm at least 3 times a day.  The rains would not last for very long and they made for some very interesting lighting conditions.  I think Cambodia was the most picturesque of the three countries.

                                                                  Boys Jumping, Siem Reap, Cambodia

                Since we are focusing some of our attention this semester on the issue of world hunger, I wanted to share a story that happened when my cousin and I were on a boat ride to see the floating villages at the Tonle Sap Lake.  Our boat driver, Jim, was no older than seventeen or eighteen.  He told us we would ride down the river to the lake, and visit a fishery, an alligator farm, a store, and a school.  During the tour, he told us about the conditions of the floating villages and how the lake was over fished and drinking water was less than ideal.  The houses were a combination of floating boat houses and thatched homes on stilts with tin roofs.  The structures were basic and spoke volumes about the poverty of the region.  Boats of beggars with sick children would approach the boat and chant, “one dollar, one dollar.” I began to feel like I should not have been on a tour here, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it at that point.  At the alligator farm, Jim explained that the school we were visiting was actually an orphanage.  He told us we were to buy food at the store to donate to the orphans.  Kate and I were confused by the itinerary, but we decided we’d be open-minded and go along with the tour.  As we rode to the store, Jim also gave us instructions not to donate any money to the orphanage because the teachers could not be trusted to give the money to the school.

                                                                               Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia

                We arrived at the store; the only option that was not junk food was a box of 50 packages of ramen noodles.  Jim acted as our interpreter and the young woman in charge said she would sell the box for 25 dollars.  As we negotiated through Jim, we explained that ramen is only 10 cents a package in our country and we knew they were attempting to over-charge us.  Jim would answer, “But it’s for the children.”  Kate got frustrated and said, “This is profit in the pocket of the business owner!  Do not tell me it’s for the children when it’s clearly not!”  I felt very uncomfortable and it was obvious that something was amiss.  We ended up purchasing 25 packages of ramen for 10 dollars.  When we arrived at the floating orphanage, the kids seemed happy to see us.  A girl around the age of five grabbed the bag of ramen and skipped off.  I noticed a sign saying “Viet-nam” and asked Jim if they were Vietnamese orphans, to which he replied that they were Vietnamese and Cambodian.   We were there for a few minutes until he told us we had to leave.  I had been jumping rope and was enjoying my time interacting with the kids.  After making such a big deal about the orphanage, I was surprised Jim rushed us off so suddenly. 

                This concluded our tour and I was left confused by the entire encounter.  My cousin and I later discovered some literature about the lake and read that the village is comprised mainly of displaced Vietnamese refugees that have not assimilated into Cambodian society.  During the rainy season, they dwell in the Tonle Sap Lake and Cambodian businesses exploit them.  After reading this, the questionable behavior of our tour guide and the store owner began to make sense and I was sad and angry that I had (unknowingly) participated in scheme.  Both parties have so little and struggle daily for basic items like food, shelter, and clean water; it was a case of the poor exploiting the poor.  It was a sobering experience.  The conditions of the floating villages tugged at my heartstrings, just as the tour intended, and I was left to wonder what one is to do in the face of hunger.

                                                     Orphanage at Tonle Sap Lake, Siem Reap, Cambodia